With the sun shining over Picton for the Maritime Festival 2013, it created the perfect atmosphere for a busy day on the foreshore, surely one of the greatest venues for any festival in New Zealand.

Thousands of people arrived to watch, taste, relax, be entertained and generally soak up all that Picton has to offer.

The team of organisers behind the scenes and quite often out in the crowd need to take a bow as they managed to combine all things good in Picton and make it free for all to attend. Lots of families as well as tourists and locals, young 'uns and not so young 'uns combined to make it a great celebration of all things maritime in one of the prettiest seaports in the world.

With Picton humming all day with live music and entertainers, there was no rest at all as the Regal Salmon Cooking tent kept the Kids Can Cook Kitchen busy with lots of young eager sous chefs and taste testers ready to sample and chew their way through potato plates and omega 3 brain food, that of Regal Marlborough Salmon.

With children in the kitchen, it adds another challenge to mums and dads, that of trying to keep the kitchen tidy and allow the kids to cook at the same time.

The key is to provide the right working tools, a table top that is the right height, their own little tools and knives (yes, knives do need to be sharp) and the time to make it all happen.

So often we are busy getting things ready that we just don't want distractions or an added mess, but if you can find easy-to-make-and-do recipes, then getting them to eat dinner will be so much easier.

Let the children grate, slice and roll, and the more roles they play in gathering the vegetables and protein, washing and cooking, then the better their taste buds will be at the dinner table.

By using local and regional products such as salmon, mussels, seasonal vegetables and herbs, we are creating a future cuisine for our province and our children, we are creating the future taste and aroma of what our region will look like, and if the Picton Maritime Festival success is anything to go by, then we are all in good hands.

REGAL SALMON POTATO CAKES

200g potatoes, cooked and mashed

250g Marlborough Regal Salmon, cooked, boned and flaked

1 Tbsp lemon juice and rind

2 Tbsp parsley, finely diced

1 pinch salt and pepper, to taste

1 egg yolk, whisked (for binding the cakes)

30g plain flour, for dusting

1 free range egg, whisked

125g fresh white breadcrumbs

Tbsp Marlborough olive oil

25g butter

In a large bowl, combine the potatos, flaked salmon, lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper. Mix well to combine. Bind with the egg yolk. Split into 6 even-sized pieces. Form each piece into a neat cake 5cm in diameter and 1.5cm thick. Dip the patties in the whisked egg and coat evenly with the breadcrumbs. Heat the oil and butter together in a frying pan.